Navmii on laptop - first impressions

The map screen looks good on my UMPC at 800x480. The program is quite small and appears very fast even on this anemic device. I do note the maps are TeleAtlas.

Terry

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The GPS device must be set up manually. I set up the appropriate COM port for my Bluetooth GPS 10x and it found it ok.

Terry

As Navmii only has UK maps at present, I was unable to use the GPS. However, I picked a POI to set up a route and then used the Demo route function to get an idea of display while routing.

The display is fine and the spoken directions are clear enough. However, it did not speak street names on all turns. I got one for A315 but not Butterwick for example.

Terry

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I'm not sure about the street name pronunciation, I haven't yet gotten that far with Navmii on my laptop. But I like your screen shot. On the left side you can see the speed trap warning. It shows the legal speed limit, too.

I did another route using 3D. The only street name it spoke was A40.

Terry

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I only see two "Voice" options:

• Kate (English UK)
• Dave (English UK)

I see no option to enable/disable street name pronunciation. That's not a big issue for me, but some users like the feature.

When you guys downloaded the map activation key file, did it only activate the UK map or did it also activate the Ireland map?

Mine only activated the UK map.

Just curious.

.... Oh yeah, I downloaded the zip file, not the .exe installer file. I just dragged the Navmii folder out of the ZIP file and into the Progam Files folder and it seems quite happy. There are no entries in the START/All Programs menu when you install that way but that's no big thing.

...ken...

Just the UK map.

Terry

Only UK for me, too.

This is interesting. With Garmin Mobile PC and my Garmin handhelds I'm used to a basemap. There does not seem to be a basemap with Navmii.

In the first image the UK is just sitting there in outer space.

The coastlines are confusing. Not really very well defined. In the next two images you can see that it's hard to tell whether it's a river, a lake or part of the coast.

And then there are those lines that head off to nowhere ... perhaps if you follow them you'll just fall off the edge of the world?

...ken...

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Ken, that's also how it is in iGuidance by iNav and perhaps other programs, too. No world basemap, but that's not an issue if you don't go outside for example USA/Canada and your street-level map data is for USA/Canada.

I think the reason it stands out so much for me is that the coastline is so poorly and ambiguously defined in the Navmii UK map.

...ken...

I really like the map display and the user interface.

It places the navigation instructions at the top and your current location at the bottom, as you can see in the attached images. Even on my Acer Aspire One netbook screen that text doesn't get in the way of viewing the map.

So far this is one of the better nav programs for the spoken voice guidance. In the attached images you can see a roundabout .. the sort of thing we in North America don't experience much and we call them traffic circles when we do. You can see in the first image the pictorial guidance in the upper left. In the second image you can see the interchange itself.

What was really useful about this is the voice guidance. "In 400 yards at the roundabout take the third exit on A4." That would sure make navigating such a complex intersection much easier.

It's very easy to find things in the user interface. It looks like it would be a super interface for a touch screen. The FIND feature is easy to use. It has the best on screen keyboard I've seen.

My criticism of the Find function is the same as for many other nav programs and personal navigation devices: you can't enter an address without first entering a city name. This is just plain stupid. In large metropolitan areas where you have multiple cities, even the local residents don't know exactly where one city starts and the next ends. Anyone who needs a GPS for navigation .... ???? Why do nav software developers do this sort of thing????

When entering a Favorite using the onscreen keyboard, it's even smart enough to automatically do the first letter of each name in upper case. Handy. It's quite easy to create favorites, whether it's the result of finding, say, an address or just clicking an arbitrary point on the map. Very nice.

I can't wait to get my hands on the North America maps and do some navigating with Navmii.

...ken...

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Well, here's the west coast of North America in iGuidance on my netbook. There's really no doubt where the coastline is at any zoom level. I think Navmii really needs to look at this.

It's not like my netbook is going to run out of blue pixels if they make the ocean around the UK blue.

...ken...

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